Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-07-18
GARBAGE DISPOSAL.
Meeting of the Committee upon the Sub
ject Last Saturday Evening.

meeting OF the committee upon the sub-
ject Last Saturday Evening.
Last Saturday evening a meeting of the
Committee ON the Disposal of Garbage and
Filling Low Lots was held in the rooms of
the Sacramento Improvement Association
at O'Clock. The committee was organized
and DR.. W. R. Cluness unanimously elected
Chairman and DR.. G. G. Tyrrell, Secretary
The subject of disposal of garbage being
in order, DR.. TyrrelI reported that believ-
ing sanitation by fire was the most reliable
economical and desirable of all means of
disposing of our city waste, he had written
letters of inquiry to Fryer of Nottingham
Hewes of Leicester, and Richmond of
Lancashire, England, who had each pat
ented garbage cremator, asking for in
formation regarding plans of construction,
amount of royalty, capacity and cost He
had also addressed a communication to DR.
LaForge, the efficient Health Officer of
Montreal, asking details of the working of
the cremator erected there, the cost of con-
struction, its comparative merits as a sani-
tary measure, and such other questions as
were pertinent to the subject He also
correspondent with firm in Iowa who
has adopted plan for a garbage
cremator which is in successful use
in that State and said to be very perfect in
its operations. When answers to these
communications, together with plans and
specifications, have been received, we hope
to have sufficient reliable information upon
the subject to enable us to present plan
for adoption by the Board of Trustees.
The only objection to cremation is the
escape of noxious fumes from the chimneys
into the atmosphere. This, it is said, has
been completely obviated in the use of
what is called the Nelson DESTROYER"
made by Richmond & Co., of Lancashire
In this furnace, which is designed to burn
not only street refuse, but also the contents
of middens, offal from slaughter houses
dead animals, decayed fruit, ETC.. the
work is assisted by highly-heated air, dis
charged among the mass of matter under
treatment, and by passing the evolved gases
over an extensive body of fire and then
purifying through water and subjecting
this gas again to fire, it is rendered per-
fectly innocuous before passing into the
atmosphere. The committee deem it i'm
portant that the public should be instructed
in the absolute necessity of disposing of our
garbage efiectually and permanently. Its
effects, II allowed as now, to ferment and
putrety on our streets. will surely be at
tended by constant sickness in its neigh
borhood, and give our city a name for
tllthiness which would far overbalance the
cost OF crematories twice told Upon the
subject of out-houses, il was the opinion of
the committee that the tub system so sue
cessfully carried out in Birmingham. a
city of nearly 100000 inhabitants, could be
very readily established here, and thus at
once get us rid of the air-defiling privy,
which now causes so much complaint. The
contents of these tubs might be cremated
or mixed with clay and be disposed of to
our kitchen gardens at cost. The prosper
ity of our city depends upon the perfection
OF its sanitation, as the opinion is abroad
that Sacramento is an unhealthy CITY and
must be avoided. This we who have lived
here for twenty years know to be untrue.
The death rate of our city will compare IA
vorably with that of any other city of its
size in California, but we cannot make
the public believe it. Put our CITY
in such a condition of cleanliness
that we can take our Eastern visitors into
any part Of it, Chinatown included, and
say to them p" Look for yourselves; see our
streets; poke your nose into every cellar,
clubhouse and vault, and if you can find
any sickness breeding smells let us know
1t to our shame" Thus and thus only can
we make the outsiders believe that cur city
is healthy city; talk will not do it, facts
must speak for themselves, by our works
shall they know us to our praise. On mo-
ton of Mr. Comstock, the meeting then
adjourned at the call of the Chairman.